Vees up winning streak to 10 games

The Penticton Vees (20-5-1-2) extended their winning streak to 10 games Saturday with a 5-2 win over the Alberni Valley Bulldogs (8-14-2-4).

The Bulldogs put the pressure on the Vees in the opening minutes, getting in five shots on goal to a single shot from the Vees. The first goal of the game came off the stick of Bulldog forward Pearce Messer scoring on a 2-on-1 rush with five minutes left in the first period.

The Vees came back to tie the game before the period was up. Kenny Johnson fired a slap shot go from the right point that Grant Cruikshank deflected past Bulldogs goalie John Hawthorne with 1:38 remaining in the frame.

Early in the second, the Vees came out with some energy, holding the Bulldogs in their own zone. The pressure paid off when Dakota Boutin slid a wraparound past Hawthorne nearly eight minutes into the second to give the Vees the lead.

Not long after the Bulldogs tied the game when James Orban’s shot from the right-wing wall beat a screened Nolan Hildebrand to tie the game again.

Just over a minute later Lukas Sillinger found a loose puck behind Hawthorne and poked in his fifth of the year to restore the Vees’ lead.

Hildebrand made a spectacular save on the penalty kill as a cross-ice feed deflected back to his glove side and he had to stab out his left leg to make the save and keep the Vees in the lead.

Penticton added another goal late in the period as Massimo Rizzo found another loose puck near the goal line and jammed it past Hawthorne for his fifth of the season to make it 4-2 Vees through 40 minutes of play.

Owen Sillinger rounded out the scoring in the third with a shorthanded goal coming down the left wing. His backhand shot went off the stick of Mitch Oliver and into the net for Sillinger’s 13th of the season.

After 13 shots in the first, Alberni managed 12 on Hildebrand through the final 40 minutes as he finished with 23 saves to improve to 8-1 on the season.

The Vees return to the South Okanagan Events Centre Wednesday night to host the Salmon Arm Silverbacks (12-15-3-0) for their third meeting of the season.